Thank god for RVP... I honestly had just opened my mouth to say that we were frakked when out of frakinng nowhere, RVP pops up and gets the equaliser... I think SAF had planned the line up with Liverpool in mind...

Speaking of which... Mansfield were robbed of a replay. How the officials didn't spot the blatant handball by Suarez I have no idea. It was also interesting to see the reaction of a lot of Liverpool fans was that it was the officials fault for not disallowing the goal... Rather than Suarez for committing a handball worthy of Maradona...

Speaking of which... Mansfield were robbed of a replay. How the officials didn't spot the blatant handball by Suarez I have no idea. It was also interesting to see the reaction of a lot of Liverpool fans was that it was the officials fault for not disallowing the goal... Rather than Suarez for committing a handball worthy of Maradona...

Thank god for RVP... I honestly had just opened my mouth to say that we were frakked when out of frakinng nowhere, RVP pops up and gets the equaliser... I think SAF had planned the line up with Liverpool in mind...

Speaking of which... Mansfield were robbed of a replay. How the officials didn't spot the blatant handball by Suarez I have no idea. It was also interesting to see the reaction of a lot of Liverpool fans was that it was the officials fault for not disallowing the goal... Rather than Suarez for committing a handball worthy of Maradona...

It burns to see RVP scoring for someone else after he averaged about 6 games a season between 2005-10. Should have sold him to Birmingham along with Flamini in 2007.

Also, I don't think it's up to Luis Suarez to not score there. It hits his hand, but it's not blatant like it was against Ghana. No player in the world is going to say 'No, no, I won't score here because the ball hit my hand', especially in a cup tie against a lower league side who are actually starting to give you a game when you have a slender lead 15 or so minutes from the end of the game. The officials should have caught it, and it's tough for Mansfield, but if Van Persie had done the same thing at 2-2 against West Ham, or Giroud had done the same at 2-2 vs Swansea, we wouldn't be crucifying our guy for cheating us to victory, we'd be grateful for the undeserved victory. It does somewhat annoy me that there aren't calls for them to replay the game though, since handball is against the rules, and Arsenal got so much stick about not returning the ball after Sheffield United kicked it out for an injury back in 1999. Which isn't actually in the official rules of the sport, merely the rules of not being a dick.Also, after Mansfield made a point of honouring the Hillsborough dead, Liverpool fans mocking the home support was in particularly bad taste I thought. Especially when Anfield is silent for home PL games unless they play Everton or Manchester United.

Thank god for RVP... I honestly had just opened my mouth to say that we were frakked when out of frakinng nowhere, RVP pops up and gets the equaliser... I think SAF had planned the line up with Liverpool in mind...

Speaking of which... Mansfield were robbed of a replay. How the officials didn't spot the blatant handball by Suarez I have no idea. It was also interesting to see the reaction of a lot of Liverpool fans was that it was the officials fault for not disallowing the goal... Rather than Suarez for committing a handball worthy of Maradona...

It burns to see RVP scoring for someone else after he averaged about 6 games a season between 2005-10. Should have sold him to Birmingham along with Flamini in 2007.

Also, I don't think it's up to Luis Suarez to not score there. It hits his hand, but it's not blatant like it was against Ghana. No player in the world is going to say 'No, no, I won't score here because the ball hit my hand', especially in a cup tie against a lower league side who are actually starting to give you a game when you have a slender lead 15 or so minutes from the end of the game. The officials should have caught it, and it's tough for Mansfield, but if Van Persie had done the same thing at 2-2 against West Ham, or Giroud had done the same at 2-2 vs Swansea, we wouldn't be crucifying our guy for cheating us to victory, we'd be grateful for the undeserved victory. It does somewhat annoy me that there aren't calls for them to replay the game though, since handball is against the rules, and Arsenal got so much stick about not returning the ball after Sheffield United kicked it out for an injury back in 1999. Which isn't actually in the official rules of the sport, merely the rules of not being a dick.Also, after Mansfield made a point of honouring the Hillsborough dead, Liverpool fans mocking the home support was in particularly bad taste I thought. Especially when Anfield is silent for home PL games unless they play Everton or Manchester United.

So..... Can any of you Chelsea fans explain to me as to what just happened? aside from Turnbull, you had a decent attack.

Ivanovich happened together with 80 minutes or so with Torres. Ba had more chances the few minutes he was on than Torres had the entire game.I like Iva. He is a beast normally, but today was his worst performance in Chelsea. How i miss Drogba, Ballack, JT days like this. Some heart and muscle.Swansea pretty much played like we did against Barca in the CL last year. Defend, defend, defend, score, defend. They did good, and Michu was impressive.

Pep going to Munich means our choices are limited for manager. I can't see Rafa staying beyond the summer whatever happens, the animosity towards him is palpable, and we know that the fans aren't exactly helping, but imagine if Jose suddenly managed Barca, or Arsene Wenger suddenly took over at Man Utd and you might start to realise why the Chelsea fans aren't just 'putting up and shutting up' as the press are so gleefully putting it.

Pep going to Munich means our choices are limited for manager. I can't see Rafa staying beyond the summer whatever happens, the animosity towards him is palpable, and we know that the fans aren't exactly helping, but imagine if Jose suddenly managed Barca, or Arsene Wenger suddenly took over at Man Utd and you might start to realise why the Chelsea fans aren't just 'putting up and shutting up' as the press are so gleefully putting it.

Pep going to Munich means our choices are limited for manager. I can't see Rafa staying beyond the summer whatever happens, the animosity towards him is palpable, and we know that the fans aren't exactly helping, but imagine if Jose suddenly managed Barca, or Arsene Wenger suddenly took over at Man Utd and you might start to realise why the Chelsea fans aren't just 'putting up and shutting up' as the press are so gleefully putting it.

Speaking of Jose...a summer return...? I can dream...

Is Rafa really that bad? His stats are more or less the same as RDM.

Speaking of Jose, after Real Madrid I can see him taking over Portuguese national team. If he ever comes back to Premier League it will be team like MU or Arsenal where owners look at team as a business rather than some billionaire-owned toy like Chelsea.

_________________Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.Mark Twain

I've heard they're good friends now, but he did still refer to it as a 'divorce'. Jose hasn't exactly had an easy ride since leaving Chelsea either, so there's every chance that he would return, but as the team sheet shakes off his influence, it's hard to see what would draw him back, without guarantees that simply won't be made while Roman is in charge.

dizlexik wrote:

Is Rafa really that bad? His stats are more or less the same as RDM..

This, like so much of the press coverage around the fans' reaction to Benetiz, misses the point so much it might as well be on another planet. See above, Imagine what the Man Utd fans would do if it was announced Wenger was taking over...they'd be apoplectic. By comparison, the Chelsea fans' reaction to a man who is quite possibly the manager who we hate the most, has been unbelievably polite.

Absolutely appalled by the sacking of Nigel Adkins. Goes to show how little most club chairmen actually know about football. If I were Pochettino I would be embarrassed to step into that dugout. As a neutral I actually liked Saints but now I hope they go down, it's what the board deserve even if the fans certainly don't.

I also heard that Pochettino doesn't even speak English? How is that ever going work out?

Gutted, absolutely gutted about it. Cortese must be an absolute space cadet to get rid of Adkins. Can't see what on Earth he thinks some bloke who got sacked from Espanyol and can't speak English is going to suddenly improve us. I just hope I'm proved wrong but I'm not optimistic. Good luck to Adkins, he wont have any difficulty finding a job.

Found this story on former Man City prodigy Michael Johnson a few days ago. I'd wondered what had happened to him.

It's really sad to see such a promising young player turn into an overweight, washed up shadow of his former self at the age of just 24. It looked like he was going to be a superstar but now it seems his career is over already. I don't like to judge because I don't exactly claim to know the facts about where it went wrong, but my perception is that he caused his own downfall. When you hear stories from people who say they saw him out drinking and partying most nights (even before his injury troubles) it's hard to sympathise. He claims to have had some mental problems over the past few years (the tragic story of Robert Enke a few years ago tells us that this is not a trivial matter) but I guess what we don't know is whether his lifestyle was the cause or the result of these problems.

Anyway he is still relatively young even by football standards and I really hope he can overcome whatever personal issues he's having, get himself back into shape and resurrect his career. It's not too late for him to have a second stab at being a professional footballer.

Gutted, absolutely gutted about it. Cortese must be an absolute space cadet to get rid of Adkins. Can't see what on Earth he thinks some bloke who got sacked from Espanyol and can't speak English is going to suddenly improve us. I just hope I'm proved wrong but I'm not optimistic. Good luck to Adkins, he wont have any difficulty finding a job.

Not sure about the English, but I understand that before this season Pottechetino had a good reputation at Espanyol having steered them up the table until he had to sell loads of players due to cash problems at the club.

I understand that even when he left the club (by mutual consent) the fans still loved him.

Gonna be interesting to see whether he can learn English quick, but it might not be the disaster most are expecting.

Besides, with points in the bag, surely there could be at least 3 teams below you come May (QPR?, Villa?, Wigan?)

Eden Hazard, what a complete idiot. As stupid as the ball boy was, trying to kick the ball out from under him was a really stupid thing to do. Definite red. You just can't do something like that regardless.......

Wrong thing to do by Hazard..However the ball boy also did wrong. Is this the future of football? Let's all train our ball boys to be fast in getting the ball and then putting yourself over it until the game is over. Charlie Morgan the ball boy in question Twitter prior to the game:

"Charlie Morgan™ ?@CHARLIEM0RGAN

The king of all ball boys is back making his final appearance #needed #for #timewasting "

Gutted, absolutely gutted about it. Cortese must be an absolute space cadet to get rid of Adkins. Can't see what on Earth he thinks some bloke who got sacked from Espanyol and can't speak English is going to suddenly improve us. I just hope I'm proved wrong but I'm not optimistic. Good luck to Adkins, he wont have any difficulty finding a job.

Not sure about the English, but I understand that before this season Pottechetino had a good reputation at Espanyol having steered them up the table until he had to sell loads of players due to cash problems at the club.

I understand that even when he left the club (by mutual consent) the fans still loved him.

Gonna be interesting to see whether he can learn English quick, but it might not be the disaster most are expecting.

Besides, with points in the bag, surely there could be at least 3 teams below you come May (QPR?, Villa?, Wigan?)

We might well stay up purely on the basis of how bad QPR, Wigan, Reading and Villa are. You can probably add Newcastle, Norwich and West Ham to that list the way they are going too.

I notice Redknapp played his usual trick in the cup of sticking out a crap team against lower league opposition, then moaning about how he has such a weak squad when they get beat. Hate is such a strong word but I dislike that man on a truly astronomical scale.